I wasn’t surprised that the barbecue was top-notch at Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue when we stopped by for dinner in a relatively unplanned trip to Kansas City this weekend. I’d heard good things about it and we were not disappointed. The service and food were both great at the Martin City location we hit for a little chow.

What surprised me was the waitress’s response to the, “What do you have for beer?” I tossed her as we sat down on the patio to await a table.

(fill in a coupla blanks–I forget what all she said. And then, as if an afterthought:

“And we have Bud, Bud Light and _________.”

All too often the wait-staff lists the beers with the craft beer relegated to the role of “afterthought.” So I was impressed that this joint had its priorities straight–showcasing solid, local beers alongside its tasty victuals. I went for the stout, which was primo. From Boulevard, it seems to me, their Bully! Porter gets all the attention, but if I have a choice of the two, I go for the Dry Stout any day of the week. It’s solid–and great with the ‘cue.

Michelle refused to eat this one, but boy did it bring back memories of my youth.

A simple, two ingredient affair, Beanie Weanies is a Midwestern classic, and one of two or three dishes that my mom cycled through our dinner table on a regular basis when I was a kid. It’s a bit slick and fatty feeling in the mouth, so I paired it with something to scrape the palate clean while bringing in malt and hop booms with an alcohol kick.

A bottle of Boundary Bay‘s Old Bounder Barley Wine, a gift from BB assistant brewer Anthony Stone and delivered to me by his kind mother-in-law, who lives in my midst. Yes, the beer world is small, and I am very thankful for both Anthony and Mrs. Ekdahl.

The barley wine absolutely did the trick, cutting through the fat and oddly complimenting this “dish,” while adding the hop bang so lacking in both beans and hot dogs.

So this one starts with a collegiate classic: your basic bowl of Ramen noodles. But before I add beer, I kick it up a notch with one of the only condiments that matters: Sriracha Hot Sauce. It makes everything kick a new brand of ass. Toss some on your 10-cent noodles next time and see if you don’t agree.

Then, add an IPA. I’m tossing back a Single-Wide IPA from Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City. Highly recommended, with or without Ramen noodles.

I prolly won’t be drinking sloe gin fizzes, but come August (19-21), I’m heading to Portland for the Second Annual Beer Bloggers Conference.

Due to the popularity of my little side project (did I mention I’ve signed a book deal and we’re shooting for a late October release?), I’ve been asked to speak this year on kicking up creativity a notch or two. This invite is more than a little humbling, as King of Amazingness Beer Legend Fred Eckhardt is also on the bill.

The conference was informational and a lot of fun last year in Boulder, and I’m glad to be going back. I’ve been–live in–brewvana, but I’ve never been to beervana, so I’m very much looking forward to the trip, the beer sippings and whatever else may go down.

Portland, of course, brings to mind Jack White and Loretta Lynn, so I thought I’d share this video to get you in the mood:

I’m flying out a couple of days early to check out Brother Matt and miscellaneous other good stuff. Stay tuned…

[This is the fourteenth installment of an ongoing series by Adam Draeger, an experienced homebrewer and engineer transitioning to the world of professional brewing through coursework at the Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology–this is the end of the road–Adam got a job! ]

After moving out to greater-Denver and settling in, every day for the first few days I was putting 200 miles on my vehicle dropping off resumes and business cards (I use the term “business cards” loosely since I bought some custom rubber stamps and blank coasters to craft my cards–pictured right)
and visited:
Left Hand
Oskar Blues
Upslope
Mountain Sun
Boulder Brewing
Avery
Redstone
Southern Sun
Great Divide
Breckenridge
Wynkoop
CB&Potts
TommyKnocker
Rock Bottom
Golden City
Odell’s
Fort Collins Brewing
New Belgium

Coopersmiths

Eclipse
Bull and Bush
Gordon Birsch
BJ’s restaurant

Asher Brewing

Denver Chophouse

Pints Pub
Del Norte
Dry Dock
Twisted Pine
Yak and Yeti
and the Brewer’s Association HQ (for networking purposes)Even though I was willing to volunteer a day or two, most places weren’t giving me the time of day or returning emails/phone calls, etc.
(a shout out to Tommyknocker, Del Norte, Funkwerks and the BA for letting me job shadow/intern) There were several days that I was so frustrated that I considered flushing my degree down the toilet and going back into engineering.

Well, the fact of the matter is I visited the KROC homebrewing club and these great guys and gals gave me a couple job leads. One lead was that Chris Kennedy at Yak and Yeti Brewpub was leaving (he is the new head brewer for Jamil Zainasheff at Heretic Brewing)…I smothered Chris with confidence and convinced him that he only needed to show me how to brew once, transfer beer once, answer a few questions like how to fill out the alcohol tax form and I’d be good to go…I got the job.Meet the new head brewer for the Yak and Yeti in Arvada, CO.

A little info about the Yak: The Yak and Yeti is an Indian and Nepalese restaurant that has been around since 2001 in Westminster. Their food is apparently the best around (I can confirm this after having eaten there now). They became sucessful enough after six years to open a second restaurant. Dol (the Yak’s founder) purchased the old English-style “Cheshire Cat Brewpub” which is located in a 1864 old house in old-town Arvada. Chris has been brewing on this 7-barrel system, made from mostly old dairy equipment, for almost three years supplying beer for both restaurants (Coincidentally, the CC Brewpub was also in operation since 2001 before ownership changed).

Currently this is only a part-time head brewer position due to the low volume of beer sales, but I’m optimistically going to put some hard work into increasing sales. I’ve already brewed a batch with Chrs and transfered cellared beer several times by myself. The other exciting opportunity from this job is the GABF this fall. Since Chris won a gold medal for the Himalayan IPA last year, the owner wants to me submit beers again. So my first time attending the GABF and I’ll be pouring my hand-crafted beer at the nation’s largest beer festival. Who would have imagined?!

The first question that most of the locals ask me is “what do you like to brew?” or “what can we expect for beers?” I can say for the first round, I’ll probably just brew Chris’s four main recipes (IPA, Chai Stout, Pils and Red ale) once and then add a 5th rotating seasonal, most likely a wheat bier. Since this was an English brewpub, there are still four hand pulls in place for cask beer and room for eight other beers on tap, so plentyof room to grow. Although, I will have some new friendly competition because just a few blocks away the Arvada Beer Company will be opening its doors in about a month, I’m hoping we can plug each others’ beersand both come out ahead as now Denverites have a beer reason to come to our suburb.

If you want more info on the Yak, you’ll have to google it yourself, or start with these links:www.theyakandyeti.com (excuse the primitive website, I’m not the webguy, but here you can find a news video clip about the brewpub being haunted!)

I needed an “author photo” for this book situation. In an effort to document the entire monk project, his job was to capture the behind-the-scenes, special features stuff. So the 12-year-old, budding Spielberg shot stills of the photo shoot for posterity. The flash was turned off on my camera phone, which is what he was using, so they’re all a bit blurry, but fun nonetheless.

However, I couldn’t help but notice that in the shot above, Ashley’s bum was in perfectly good focus, while I was a bit blurry. Surely, that’s a coincidence.

A long overdue 3-word beer review, I sat down with a bottle of Odell’s Friek this week. In short, here’s what I got from the cool-labeled, cherry-and-raspberry, oak-aged lambic:

1. balanced-frambo/krieky-fruitaliciousness

2. flavaromadelic-wooden-acid-love-with-rosy-hues-of beauty

3. undercarbonated

I shoved that frieking beer into that goblet, but as you can see, it is flatter than a pancake. It’s my only complaint for this yummy beer and the only Odellian misstep I’ve encountered. Effing great brewery. Though this beer is flat, it doesn’t fall flat. I enjoyed it nonetheless.